Terrain feature classification in SAR imagery

This paper describes a maximum likelihood feature detector for extracting terrain features from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. We commence by deriving the probability distribution for SAR image amplitude. According to our model, the SAR image amplitude follows a product of Rayleigh and Bessel functions distribution. We show how the two parameters of this model can be estimated using robust statistics. With the model to hand we develop a maximum likelihood feature detector. Eventually, we classify the detected terrain features in ridges or ravines.